The invention relates to an apparatus for separating for franking/printing flat items of mail guided in a conveying direction F at one side edge, such as envelopes, mailers, cards, printed products, sleeves, labels or the like, which are supplied individually in a feeder or are guided in an exact position at a front edge lying on one another as a stack and are each gripped at the underside of the stack by a separating device, separated and transported onward in a conveying direction F.
CH 650 995 A5 describes a feed device for a franking machine, which has two sensors arranged one after the other on the conveying track. As the front edge of an envelope passes, the first sensor switches off the drive of a conveying section arranged in a stack space, so that the entrapment of further envelopes is prevented. In addition, as the trailing edge of the envelope passes, it outputs a signal, by means of which a second drive of the second conveying section is slowed, in order then to permit a stoppage.
An apparatus of a franking machine according to EP 1 882 536 A1 has a conveying device formed from conveyor rollers arranged one above another, with which items of mall from a feeder are removed at the underside of a stack. For this purpose, the feeder is formed with a front wall for positioning the stacked items of mail. A conveyor roller positioned immediately after the removal opening is arranged a guide roller interacting with the latter and positioned above it slightly in front. The guide roller is rotatably mounted counter to the loading force acting in the same direction as the conveying direction and holds back excess items of mail arriving at the removal opening.